Due to the many requests that people have had for paint tips, I have decided that I need to add a "paint tips" page. Since I hate having anybody work on my truck except for myself and a few friends, I decided that I would paint my Bronco myself (with the help of a friend willing to donate his heated garage and use of his air compressor.) This is in no way a complete list or story of what you should do, but some things I found out that worked good and some that I found out the hard way. Remember, learn from your mistakes and learn from others when they screw up and are willing to tell you about it.

Before you begin painting, make sure that you (and anybody helping you) have an APPROVED respirator for the type of paint/solvent/reducer, that you are using. Not a dust mask. Solvents in paint will KILL you and/or give you brain damage and nerve damage. It is not worth dying to paint your truck. For this reason alone, it is a good idea to let professionals handle your paint job.

IF YOU DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING ANY OF THE THINGS I DID, PLEASE GET SOME HELP OR TAKE YOUR VEHICLE SOMEWHERE TO GET THE PAINT DONE BY A PROFESSIONAL. REMEMBER, TAKE SOME PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS. I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF YOU FUCK UP, I AM JUST TRYING TO ANSWER SOME COMMON QUESTIONS PEOPLE HAVE HAD.

I removed as much from the body as possible.

• Wipers (the clip is underneath, next to the post, and a bitch to pull outward, away from the post as you lift up the wiper)
• Squirters (a nut under the hood holds them on)
• "Bronco" fender emblems and engine ID and front grill emblems if you have them
• Front and rear side marker lights
• Front and rear turn signals
• Headlights and trim rings (you can paint those separately if not chromed)
• Spare tire rack (you can paint it separately a lot better)
• Rear view mirrors
• Front and rear bumpers
• License plates
• Any other stuff you have bolted on
You can take off the door locks and handles too, but I wanted to be able to open the doors if necessary and they taped up easily.

I got rid of all the rust possible. I had a lot of surface rust from the roll-over scratches and pits. I used a dual action sander with 60, 80, 100 grit paper and a small sand blaster. The sand blaster worked great getting the rock chip rust out of the front grill (make sure you protect your radiatior with cardboard or something). It also worked good on the rear fender seams. The seams were rusted pretty good, but thankfully no rust holes yet. Why the hell did Ford make those damn seams anyway?! I used a couple cans of "Extend" Rust converter/remover everywhere that I had hit the rust just to make sure that I killed it as much as possible.

I bought about 4 spray cans of primer, the good stuff with zinc in it to help control any future rust if it comes back and primed all the bare metal spots and places where I used filler and spot glazing putty. If you use filler (and everybody does), I have found that the "Bondo-glass" with fiberglass fibers imbedded in it works really good. Strong stuff.

ALWAYS USE A BLOCK OF SOME SORT (RUBBER) WHEN YOU SAND. Otherwise you will not get an even surface. Your hand is not flat and your hand contours will be sanded into the truck, no matter how many different directions you sand. Believe me, I know.

I didn't primer the whole truck because I didn't want to and a lot of the truck had the original paint, so I knew there was nothing hiding underneath. It was cheaper and the paint supplier guys said that I didn't have to primer the whole thing anyway. Paint sticks good to well prepped old paint. "Well prepped" being the appropriate term here. With their advice, my friend and I scrubbed the whole truck with green "Scotch-brite" pads and lots of soapy water. Make sure you have good light and you go over the truck twice or more so that no spots are accidently overlooked. Scrub, scrub, scrub. A block is a good idea here too. Try not to go down to metal, otherwise you will have to primer again. After making sure that all the soap and dead paint was cleaned off, we used compressed air and blew the water off of the truck. MAKE SURE THAT YOU GET ALL THE CRACKS, JOINTS, AND WATER "TRAPS" DRY. Water and paint don't mix.

We then put the Bronco in my friend's heated garage and let it "cook" at 80 degrees to dry off any left over water and to get the paint and body the same temperature. Make sure that the paint and body are at the same temperature when you paint or it won't stick good. While this was going on we taped up all the windows, wheel wells, door handles, headlight and tail-light holes, LICENSE PLATE BULB, engine compartment, lift gate handle, tail gate handle, hood release, wiper studs, vent holes under the hood, gas tank, and anything else I didn't want any paint to get on. We used newspaper and masking tape. Make sure that you use several layers of newspaper as it is not the thickest stuff and tape up all the areas where the newspaper overlaps. Paint gets EVERYWHERE! Of course, it you primer the whole thing first, you should redo all the paper and tape before you apply the paint. Otherwise you will get primer dust blown into your paint (off of the newspaper.)

It is good practice to clean the garage floor before you pull the truck in. I used water and wet rags wrapped around a push broom to keep all the dust down. The air pressure coming out of the paint gun will blow dirt and dust around and onto your wet paint if you don't keep your area clean. Once we were done taping up the Bronco, we used clean, lint free rags and a lot of acetone and wiped down the truck several times. You don't want any dead paint, skin oils, finger prints, grease, sap, tar, or anything on the surface. Be careful not to get the acetone on the tape too much or it will peel off.

We stapled plastic drop cloths to the garage ceiling and let them hang down to the floor so that paint did not get all over his walls. He had an exhaust fan built into the back wall of the garage which we left open and on to exhaust the fumes and airborne paint "dust". This is important! Some fresh air needs to be able to get in and you need to somehow exhaust fumes and all the airborne paint "dust". There will be A LOT of this paint "dust" flying around, drying in the air in clumps and falling back onto your wet paint! It sucks!! You need a strong exhaust mechanism of some sort, but not something blowing into your paint area-just exhaust.

Before you begin painting, make sure that you (and anybody helping you) have an APPROVED respirator for the type of paint/solvent/reducer, that you are using. Not a dust mask. Solvents in paint will KILL you and/or give you brain damage and nerve damage. It is not worth dying to paint your truck. For this reason alone, it is a good idea to let the pros handle your paint job.

If you have a heater going in the garage or any pilot lights, they may ignite the paint fumes!

Wear clean, tight-fitting clothes that will not drag on the wet paint as you are leaning over the truck painting. Wear something that you do not care about throwing away when you are done, paint gets everywhere. Something to cover your head, such as a hood is a good idea too. Otherwise you might need a haircut after you are done. Goggles are a good idea too.

It worked good having a friend help out. He held the air hose behind me and away from the truck so it didn't rub against the truck. He could also see the paint at a different angle than I could so he could see if I was putting a proper coat of paint on.

Practice your paint gun techniques! You really need to practice on something to get your techniques down. Preferably another vehicle (junker, or something). It is definately worth paying for some extra paint to practice on something. Practice horizontal and vertical surfaces-paint acts differently due to gravity. You will not know how much paint is too much or too little (orange peel texture) unless you practice on something similar.

Use an air compressor with at least a 25 gal tank attached. Make sure you have a regulator (set to correct pressure, usually about 50 psi) and a inline water separator. You can have a dual regulator/water separator that come together as one unit. You will need a good spray gun too. I also used a cheap, plastic, disposable in-line water separator where the air line went into the spray gun to catch any left over water vapor. Make sure that all your air line connections are tight and that you use teflon tape around the threads. Water loves to leak out of fittings when under pressure and you do not want it to drip onto your wet paint. Big mess.

When we started painting, the first coat did not stick very good and there were lots of runs (probably one of the reasons to use primer!) The first coat should not be as heavy as the following coats. I was using lacquer with hardener added so I used up the paint that I had mixed up already and put a couple coats over the whole body. We then let it dry overnight so we could wet sand our mistakes before we applied more coats. The lacquer had a top coat time window of 2 days, so it was alright to let it dry overnight and paint it again the next day. We wet sanded it with a lot of water and 800, then 1000, and then 1500 grit wet/dry silica sandpaper using sanding blocks. The runs came out fairly easily this way. We also took out all the little paint "dust" clumps that landed on the hood. We rewashed it and blew it dry and let it sit for several hours in the garage to dry any leftover water, used a tack rag to clean off any leftover dust, and repainted it again with several coats.

We let it dry over night, and took all the tape off the next day and let it sit for a couple more days before putting everything back on the Bronco.

e-mail me at i6735189@wsunix.wsu.edu.
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